Halo 1 Segmented - Solo Legendary Speedrun

At one time, just getting the quickest combined time for Halo 1 under 77 minutes was a project worthy of all of High Speed Halo's combined might. Now, through the power of segmenting and armed with an array of brand new tricks, slYnki and scurty bring you this full-game, segmented, speedrun of Halo CE on Legendary Solo in 1 hour, 16 minutes and 43 seconds.

For those not familiar with speedruns, they involve getting from the beginning cutscene to the ending cutscene in as little time as possible. Anything that can be achieved on an unmodded Xbox, including clipping through level geometry, manipulating or skipping spawn triggers or performing crazy launches, is fair game. These two take advantage of all of these and more in this run.

What does segmenting mean?
Ordinarily, runs at High Speed Halo are done in one sitting, from one level start to finish. Or if its a full game, that means the runner is sitting there for the full hour+ it takes to finish it. Segmenting, on the other hand, allows a runner to try individual segments over and over until they get them just right, and then stitch the segments together later to form one continuous run. This means that if a runner can land some ridiculous trick even once; it can go into the run. Its routinely done in other games, especially on PC, but for HSH it is reserved only for special projects like this.

If you have seen some Halo 1 speedruns before, watch this to see how far the craft has come. If you've never seen one before? You should definitely watch at least this one.

Warning: change of pants advised!

Read the newspost at High Speed Halo.net, including comments on this run's special timing from Nokyard and how this project came about by runner slYnki, here:http://highspeedhalo.net/?p=3941

Halo: Reach - Lego Falcon

"Created by Lego prodigy and Sci-fi fan Stephen Chao, this fully detailed rendition of the Falcon includes seating for six minifigures and everything you need to restore your faith in the internet's creative prowess.
Check out his Falcon and more of his work at the link(s)."

Map Spotlight 18 - Jackal Creek

I will only be providing you with a brief introduction today, as it seems I have run out of character space. Here's Jackal Creek by A 3 Legged Goat.

Q. Who are you and why do you forge?

A. I'm A 3 Legged Goat and I'm responsible for FAQ and HUB threads during Reach's development, as well as many complaints about the final game. But despite my frustrations, I love Forge and I've adopted it as a creative outlet. I was very new to it before I discovered ReachingPerfection. They are a talented, helpful, and insightful group of designers--especially Jonzorz 124, whom would later become a co-author for Jackal Creek.

Q. What was your inspiration for Jackal Creek?

A. When I walled off the area I noticed that there was a creek running through the middle. I didn't want to rebuild Beaver Creek, but I chose to borrow a bit of its design. Beaver Creek's defining features were the unique bases and teleporter system. As a result, Jackal Creek's bases are also very unique and my favorite part of the map. They are accessible, functional, and Jon and I managed to make them look cohesive.

Q. Where is Jackal Creek located and why did you choose that location?

A. I panned Forge World for days before I found this curious corner of the Island. I noticed it had some symmetrical qualities to it, so I placed a middle mark and worked from there. I wanted to make a terrain map that felt like it was built by actual map artists and not forged pieces. Jon always said how the space chosen for Jackal Creek felt like it was built for Jackal Creek, and that thought fueled the map's construction.

Q. Did you employ any unusual forge techniques in making Jackal Creek?

A. The most radical design theory that I followed was "asymmetry within symmetry". Because Jackal Creek is a terrain map, Jon and I decided to give each area of the map distinctive advantages and disadvantages. For this idea, we looked to Valhalla for inspiration. On JC, you'll have to play a little differently depending on which side you start, much like Valhalla. But don't worry--no side is ever doomed from the start.

Q. What separates your map from other maps?

A. I think when players experience Jackal Creek, the one thing that really stands out to them is its polish. JC just looks like a finished map and the gameplay experience feels refined. It may not do anything revolutionary or incredibly innovative, but we did have a passionate group of players building and testing it for months and it shows. It was quite difficult to build the majority of the map without rotation snap. Nevertheless, I'm thrilled that we were able to use the terrain and compliment it with unique structures as well as we did.

Q. Are there any tips that you have and would like to share with other enthusiastic forgers out there?

A. It's imperative that designers take their time to develop a concept thoroughly. Jackal Creek was redesigned 22 times over 3 months before it arrived at what you see here. I watched all the playtest films from each players Perspective to see what changes I had to do to polish JC. But a map is never finished--even after it's in Matchmaking.

Q. Anything else people should know before they download?

A. The way the structures are designed cause combat to flow all around the map, which makes it great for FFA and CTF. It was also designed with the Ghost in mind, so don't be afraid to use it!

Thank you for your time Raaascal, and thank you B.net for the wonderful opportunity to share Jackal Creek with you. We're just getting started...

Racers Wanted!

Hot, nasty, bad ass speed.

HaloCharts' competitive branch, HCPL is preparing the inaugural event for a brand new feature designed for players with a particular fondness, and perhaps talent, for running the vehicles of Halo: Reach to the limit! Introducing HaloCharts' Racing League.

HCRL has set April 23rd as the date for the first race event! We're already looking for players interested in throwing their proverbial lead foot into the ring. For details of the event and instructions on how to get involved, click the link below.

Cross the Streams with Respawn Army

Pants, optional.

Join the Respawn Team today, Tuesday April 5th from Noon to 4PM PT. We will be playing Halo: Reach with the community and going after new badges in the Respawn Army. Report in for an elite edition of Project Spartan live with Mr. Sark and Hutch.

RUL's Halo Week

Enter RUL's Halo Week: A week where you can join the community in all of the old Halo games and have a blast doing it! From Wednesday, April 6 to Saturday, April 9, the team at Ready Up Live will be hosting some fun events in Halo 3: ODST, Halo Wars, Halo 3, and Halo: Reach. Be sure to stop on by so you don't miss out on the festivities!

Sunlight - A Halo: Reach Montage

This is a Halo: Reach from ASiKK, edited by SpotLiightz, "Sunlight," The gameplay is quite good, featuring a lot of sweet Overkills (the one before the credits is especially sweet). There is also a really sick 2 for 1 on Zealot. The editing is quite good as well, showcasing a neat intro and lots of well done syncing. Enjoy!

Tyrant's Halo 3: ODST Legendary Walkthrough

You knew it was coming. In this short, but informative video, the Tyrant explains what you, the player, have to look forward to in the upcoming release and also have a gander at the massive overhaul the new guide has undergone to reign supreme over the original.

Each episode has been carefully crafted to include the Mombasa Streets "hub world" events leading up to each individual flashback to allow you to experience the game it was meant to be experienced. And unlike in the previous guide, every mission will have its own episode rather than being divided into several parts.

The magic number is STILL 1000 subscribers. Almost there, folks! Following the subscription count reaching its goal, a new episode will be released every Thursday night at 8pm PST. So swing by the Tyrant's channel today to get a sneak peak at how he plans to guide you through the dark and desolate streets of New Mombasa to unleash untold amounts of Covenant carnage!

Scheduled Maintenance Tonight

We meant to do that!

The online team tells me that they'll be performing routine maintenance around midnight tonight (PDT). It's expected that Bungie.net functionality, including stats, will be marginally impacted. While we don't expect any in game mischief, if you run into some, it's likely that some unanticipated thing exploded unanticipatedly, and that we'll be furious scrambling to resolve it by the time the sun comes up.

If this is the last time we ever speak, we want you to know that we've always loved you, and that yes, it was us who left the seat up the night you fell in. We're sorry.

Rendered Video Traffic Jam

Give it a minute. It's going to space!

We're totally sorry that your rendered videos are moving at a snail's pace. We ran into some technical difficulties over the weekend, and while we've our online team got everything all fixed up, it is going to take a little while before things are moving at optimal levels again. The Hydra is chewing through a sizable backlog right now.

Bungie All Stars - Week 13

This elevator stops at all the floors.

I was tempted to skip the competition this week, my consideration owed to superstition around the number 13. After consulting the bones, and sucking back a cup of coffee, I came to my senses. Here's this week's task:

Since many of you will already be making a run through Long Night of Solace this week, go ahead and snap a screenshot along the way that showcases any awe-inspiring aspect of the Covenant forces on the ground, or high above Reach (no, you don't have to confine yourself to this one campaign space).

You have from this very second until Thursday, April 7th at 11:59pm PT to submit your entry for consideration to contest@bungie.com.

Use the subject line “Bungie All Star Week 13” without the quotation marks.

The size limit is 10MB. Include a preview image and a link to the original in your file share.

One submission per person. Please include your Bungie.net profile and gamertag in your email.

I will accept custom work, but screenshots will be heavily favored when it comes time to place judgment. Wort, Wort, Wort, and all that mess.

Forge Lesson 46: Active Engagement

Today's lesson is inspired by many BTB maps and Invasion maps out there (however this can be applied to all maps). Have you played an Invasion map where you spend a good majority of your time walking rather than fighting? Or those BTB Montana/Alaska bridge maps where you travel from one side to the other for a full minute and then die to restart that long trek? I know I have. Today's lesson talks about keeping your players actively engaged and involved so you don't lose them to shear boredom.

* When players are not actively engaged they get bored and lose interest in your map
* Various techniques can be used to engage your players, but making sure you don't over do it is important
* Walking around your map and putting yourself in your player's shoes can help you find spots to improve player engagement

Join us in our forum @ RP to meet like-minded individuals who are interested in level design.

All the Gold - A Halo: Reach Montage

This is Chimp's 2nd Halo: Reach montage, entitled, "All the Gold", put together by Just Mad. The gameplay is quite good, featuring a lot of really nice Overkills and a very sick Killtacular at the end. As usual for Just Mad, the editing is relatively simple, but it gets the job done very well, focusing on syncing and showcasing some really well done angles. Also, I really liked the soundtrack, and the ending is just awesome. Enjoy!

Fire Team Zulu: Never Tell Me The Odds

We're back from a short hiatus, hopefully with less instances of hiatus in the future!

Our latest contest challenge, "Never tell me the odds" is now live, with a Defiant Map Pack on the line. Valid submissions will be entered into a random drawing for the map pack on April 4th, 2011. Good luck!

Halo Reach Player Improvernator

Guaranteed to give you the edge!

The all-new Halo Reach Player Improvernator will drastically help you improve at Halo Reach. Our super-advanced system is guaranteed to help you improve in specific matchmaking stats giving you the edge you've always wanted.

Humpday Challenge - PMS Clan

Sugar and spice and everything nice.

The ladies of the storied Halo community, PMS Clan, banded together against poor little old us this week, hell bent on proving they had what it takes to not only put some cracks in the glass ceiling, but also in our visors via some expert DMR marksmanship. I’m still not convinced Lionel didn’t have a secondary goal of flexing his Halo muscle in front of the lovely ladies – he and Hal set this whole Humpday up outside of the usual, albeit recently inoperative channels – but either way, the challenge was issued and we responded as we always do…by barely fielding a horribly organized team of players easily confused by the simple prospect of smoothly hosting three custom games.

Let’s begin!

Team Bungle

The Manliest of Manly Men.

Team PMS

Suddenly, all the misogynistic jokes we made in the pre-game lobby weren’t all that funny.

Game .5 – King of the Hill on Breakpoint

“Um…wait. Hal, you didn’t put the Crazy in Crazy King, did you?”

Game 1 – Crazy King on Breakpoint

Ah, that’s better. The hill moves! But not before our opponents worked up a sizable lead. It wasn’t until we took to the skies instead of trying to match up, if you’ll forgive an expression, man to man, that we started to whittle away at their effective hill control strategy.
Durkin
Things felt close to start off with, but at some point we gained control of both Falcons and with Tomo as my gunner, we could do no wrong…that is until they reclaimed the Splaser and reduced our bird into a smoldering pile of scrap metal.

Lionel
We had to restart this game after realizing that static king would mean we’d all spawn at the top of the hill and run all the way down just to get killed immediately for 15 minutes. After upping the fun level by maximizing the random, 30 second hill moves had us scrambling back and forth across breakpoint like crazy, crazy kings. More than once we’d finally capture the hill only to have the rug immediately pulled from under our feet. The PMS clan had a talent for changing my plans, I PLANNED to get some hill time, I PLANNED on not getting teamshot, I PLANNED on being alive for more than 15 seconds at a time.

Due to some Falcon heroics we were able to pull this one out, barely - by a mere 18 seconds. I fell victim to some unlucky positioning, getting teamshot by swarms of freshly respawned ladies on more than one occasion.

Hal
Favorite part of the first game was realizing that a game to 500 was on the same page as a game to 5,000.

Hal: “500, huh?”

L Askan: “Yeah…”

We abused the Falcons at one point, but it was definitely a close game off the get go.

Bungie Wins, 173-155.

Game 2 – Slayer Pro on Boardwalk

Ah, Boardwalk. Once your were the bane of our Humpday dreams, now you bend to our will. Slayer Pro was a good selection for us, even though Tomo confessed to be pretty cold with the precision weapons. Turned out his rifle was indeed hot, and did most of the talking for Team Bungie.

Durkin
Don’t have much for a summary on this game. As long as I was with a teammate I did ok, but if I was on my own I tended to get taken out pretty fast.

Lionel
These girls had obviously done their homework and sought to undermine our growing confidence threefold; first, in a daylight savings-esque maneuver they pushed the slayer game up a spot in an attempt to jumble our internal clocks. Secondly, they went for the jugular by selecting Boardwalk (Hi, Tomo!) and I knew in my heart of hearts that it was a pre-planned move. Third, they brought in their ringer, errratica.

Normally manly men, we aren’t easily shaken - a quick review of her service record however revealed that she is approaching 100,000 MM kills, more than our entire team combined. Before I was able take bended knee and propose, she made the admission that she preferred the Assault Rifle over the pistol. Beyond that I can only tell you this: The wedding is off. This game was over from jump (pun intended). We spawned on the high side, and never truly relinquished control of top snipe area.

Hal
I totally clipped the girl who fell off the map at the get go, but I guess I forgot to upload it to my share… but that was my favorite moment when we were literally 10 seconds into game and without a shot fired you hear “Gained the Lead,” and Lionel saying, “That’ll help.”

Bungie Wins, 100 – 46.

Game 3 – 2 Flag on Tempest

Humpday already in the bag, I figured I’d just play for fun. Apparently, Durkin doesn’t have a “Just for Fun” gear.

Durkin
As I hopped into the gunner seat of Hal’s Warthog, I called it a death machine, expecting to be a double kill on wheels. It did turn out to be a death machine, but the other way around. Despite our constant warthog onslaught, and the other team losing a player, it still took us a long time to get our first flag cap. Shortly afterward Hal’s reckless driving combined with a hail of DMR fire flipped our ‘hog, ending our reign of terror. Without the Warthog to hide behind, I felt pretty ineffective, and resorted to throwing myself at the other team in hopes of distracting them from our flag carrier.

Lionel
6v6 Two flag on Tempest is my favorite game of Halo right now. Great mix of Warthog and foot battles, perfect balance of weapons, amazing map. The PMS clan had a lock down defense, it took one of their players lagging out (yeah, lagging out… that’s it) before we were able to even put hands on their flag, probably well beyond five minutes into the match. A few times we had a player close but the warthog carnage led to them respawning right next to their flag and decimating a would be thief. When we were finally able to get a flag carrier into the passenger seat of our Hog it was a harrowing experience, more than one rocket very nearly missing the already damaged transport. I think I should quote Halcylon here.

“This hogs gonna blow up if I sneeze.”

They pulled our flag a few times and even managed to work one back to their base. We used that opportunity to set up for another pull and slow walked it over top mid for the win.

Hal
While they did lose a player early, this was definitely the most fun. Driving Durkin for his frenzy and getting my road rage.

Bungie Wins, 3 – 1.

It’d been a while since we rolled out the Bungie crew for some good old fashioned humpin’, but I gotta say it felt great to get back in the saddle. Good thing the lovely, and respectable, ladies we faced off with took it easy on us.

Lionel gets the last word:

Great games PMS Clan, I look forward to meeting you on the battlefield again.

P.S. All images from today's write-up can be found in high resolution glory in Hal's Service Record. Because I am far too lazy to link them all individually.

Forge Hub's TGIF 11

Forge Hub is again hosting its staple community event: Thank Goodness It's Forgeday!

Every two weeks, members host customs parties featuring different aspects of the community's finest. Any member can join in the festivities by signing up with a party that suits their sensibilities, such as a hodgepodge of recent minigames to hit the map section, a Halo 3 "Nostalgia Fest" and even a group dedicated to testing party member-made maps.

It's Not Enough - A Halo: Reach Montage

This is a Halo: Reach montage from Just Mad, put together by himself, entitled, "It's Not Enough". I always like Just Mad's videos, and this one was no exception. The gameplay features the same huge, clean sniper multikills, and there's even some sweet grenade launcher action in this one. The editing is simple, as usual, placing syncing as its primary focus as to not distract from the gameplay. Enjoy!